UX Research Portfolio
Leo Huang, Ph.D. Candidate
Table of Contents
About me
About me
Research approach
Methods
Besample
Identifying the most
relevant
demographic filter for
our recruitment
interface
Besample
Generative work to
define our core
researchers and
needs
CIBC
Overhauling Private
Wealth pages to
attract more clients
Case 1 Case 2 Case 3
About me
I’m a UX researcher with a focus on uncovering core user needs through
in-depth interviews and empirically measuring usability. I live in Toronto,
ON.
I was trained at University of Toronto’s psychology PhD program. I had
extensive training on qualitative and quantitative methods.
At CIBC, I helped drive a user focus in an especially client-driven company.
My work resulted in 11+ studies and 3 line of business web portal
overhauls.
At Besample, I focus on comparatively assessing the UX of competitor
products and driving measurable improvement over time for researchers on
the platform.
My research approach
I use qualitative research to explore
and define the problem space.
I use quantitative research to
measure and validate the defined
problem.
I have combined these phases into
single studies and staggered them
across research roadmaps.
Explore Measure
A few driving philosophies
Focus on user behaviors, avoid asking what users prefer.
Show the insights in their truest form, not in the way the team hopes
they will be.
Start with the research question and then choose the method for the
most impactful results.
Quantitative research will show what and how much; qualitative
research will show why.
Qualitative Quantitative
Input
Interviews
Moderated usability
testing
Unmoderated usability testing
Card
-sorting
Benchmark usability
testing
Log analysis
Survey
First
-click
Card
-sorting
Eyetracking
Output
Thematic
analysis
Jobs
-to-be-done
Mental
Models
Affinity diagramming
Personas
Usability metric
comparison
Statistical analysis (linear regression, mixed
-effects
models in
R, Python, Matlab, Excel)
Heat
-mapping
Methods
Below are a few methods I use to collect and analyze data. I select the method based on problem we are
trying to solve and the phase of product development.
Case 1: Besample Recruitment Overhaul
Project & Objective
Besample’s main product connects researchers with
paid participants. Since researchers often have specific
demographics that they would like to study, the
recruitment interface needs to have a comprehensive list
of demographic parameter filters to help researchers find
their target participants while balancing complexity of the
interface.
The goal of this project was to assess the variables that
researchers care most about, e.g., age, gender, martial
status, occupation. I’ve also added the goal of qualifying
the complexity of the variables as some can be
ambiguous, e.g., ethnicity
Note: this project is more confidential so fewer details can be shared.
Case 1: Besample Recruitment
Process
To understand researchers’ main demogrpahics
of conern, I employed the Top Tasks method. It
involved two phases, the first being to explore
and define all the possible demographic
variables that we can conceivably store about
our participants.
I conducted a meta-study of published research
with human participants to look at the most
commonly reported variables and interviewed a
handful of internal subject-matter experts to find
the possible list of tasks. I then used a
qualitative reduction process to trim this list
down to a relatively “short” list of final possible
variables.
Case 1: Besample Recruitment
Process
The second phase was to identify which variables
were most critical to our users. The biggest
challenge here was operational: how can we find
hundreds of researchers in different fields to
answer a survey? I helped establish connections
with an large publication firm which allowed us to
contact researchers form diverse fields.
I used this customer list to distribute the
randomized survey I built in Qualtrics. I used R to
automate the data cleaning and analysis process.
Case 1: Besample Recruitment
Results
The results painted a clear picture of a few
critical variables that most researchers were
interested in. Furthermore, the other
variables that researchers cared about fits
into clear themes based on their fields of
research.
Based on our research, it seems like 6
variables were universally required by
participants. Beyond that, it seems like
providing customized filters based on the
field of research that the researcher is doing
is the best way to bring the most relevant
filter to the researchers.
Case 1: Besample Recruitment
Results continued & Reflection
Beyond our product and design team, I made the
findings digestible and available to the whole
company through an internal presentation and
report. Of the many teams that have begun to
use our findings, the finance team has
extensively used this information in their
marketing martial and for investor meetings.
If I were to do this project again, I’d have like to
create a few figma prototypes of varying
complexity of filter dashboard and test it with
researchers to identify the optimal number of
demographic variables to provide.
Case 2: Understanding Researchers
Project & Objective
The product team felt that they weren’t sure who our users were and
what they of research they wanted to conduct on the platform.
Product management would often be forced to make assumptions on
the backgrounds of our researches when making decisions.
I championed this generative research project to discover the
landscape of our core users in way that gave the team an evergreen
resource on what types of research our researchers would like to
conduct on our platform that can’t be done using our larger
competitors like Prolific or Qualtrics.
Example descriptions of the researchers personas
Case 2: Types of Researchers
Process
I used Indi Young’s mental model approach: I
interviewed researchers on the platform, coded
each user interview their atomic behaviors, and
then organized the behaviors into themes. This
gave a huge map of what types of research our
users want to do.
I also used the core interest and needs to create
personas, using Alan Cooper’s behavioral
variable method to qualitatively organize each
user into three distinct persona profiles. The
persona aspect of this project was added
midway through the process to help our
audience digest the findings more easily.
Persona variable mapping example
Case 2: Types of Researchers
Result
Our work resulted in our mental model map
with dozens of research priorities overlayed
by relevant personas and three detailed
persona descriptions.
These were constructed in such a way that
they describe current technology and tools
where relevant, but also can be applied as
core underlying behaviors when the next
paradigm shift occurs (this happens often in
software development).
We put these results to work by using them
in ideation workshops and helping to rapidly
onboard new product team members.
A single persona diagram of the three created
The final map featuring numerous concrete user tasks by
persona. Each card is a task, organized by related tasks and
noted for which personas do that task.
Case 3: CIBC Private Wealth Page Overhaul
Project & Objective
One of the major research project that I worked on
was for the private wealth division. They had a
problem.
Issue: last year they only signed on a single high net
worth individual through the private wealth page.
Although there might be confounding factors at play
such as the clients being older and prefer in person
experience or competition from US banks, given the
potential customer pool and CIBC’s position as one
of the big 5 banks in Canada, this number is still too
low.
Case 3: CIBC Private Wealth Overhaul
Competitive Analysis
Mixed-Methods Usability Testing with Competitive
Benchmarking
I designed a comprehensive mixed-methods usability test that
included a competitive analysis of leading private wealth banking
websites.
Competitive Analysis:
I evaluated CIBC against two Canadian competitors (RBC and TD)
and global leaders (JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs). This helped
identify areas where our website fell short.
Usability Testing:
Usability tests provided insights into user journeys and interactions
with key elements on each site. Users were tasked with finding
specific information, allowing us to measure navigability (e.g., time to
locate items) and capture feedback on pain points like navigation bars
and accordions.
Mixed Methods Approach:
Combining qualitative interviews with quantitative metrics offered a
holistic view. While numbers highlighted measurable differences
qualitative data illuminated how users felt about and struggled with
specific design elements.
Case 3: CIBC Private Wealth Overhaul
Process
We know based on
internal statistics that
one of the key issues
was the bounce rate. I
took a quantitative
approach and broke
down all the
components of this
page into metrics such
as number of input
fields, required
information sensitivity,
and tyle of input. and I
narrowed in on the
number of text boxes
being the most
influential factor after
running some pilot
surveys.
Case 3: CIBC Private Wealth Overhaul
Process
Demographic
Unmoderated
Usability test in
UserTesting within
subject's design
30 participant
sample size
30+/ all
genders/ in
Canada
Minimum $250k in
investable assets
Minimum $100k salary
and experience
investing personal
wealth
19
Recommendations
Better splash photo
Warmer, more premium page
Better messaging
Reduce input fields
Differentiate mandatory and
non mandatory fields
Case 3: CIBC Private Wealth Overhaul
Result
20
Professional image
Targeted message
Reduce 13+ boxes to 9
Reversed “Optional”
Collapsed selections
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